1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a system which permits operation of rental equipment only during the period for which rent has been paid, and more particularly to a system in which the rental period is encoded on a card at one location and decoded by an enabling/disabling control on the rented equipment.
2. Description of Related Art
The owner of rental equipment such as furniture, appliances, etc. which is located in the premises of the lessee typically requires payment of the rental on a periodic basis, such as monthly. Often the owner or the owner's agent must actively seek payment of rental due by repeated telephone calls or the like. Although ultimately it is possible to retrieve the rented equipment if payment is refused, it may be impractical or impossible to collect unpaid rents. In addition, the owner does not wish to unnecessarily irritate the lessee when the rent has not been paid due to oversight, the lessee being away, etc.
In the past, arrangements have been used whereby a person prepays for use of a device or service by depositing payment in a timer attached to the device, or by purchasing a ticket permitting use to a particular destination. More modern arrangements encode a magnetic strip on a card giving the purchaser the right to make a particular number of copies on a copying machine for example. The rental of appliance types of equipment is somewhat different since the equipment is in the possession of the lessee and rent must be paid by the lessee whether the equipment is used or not.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,455,093, B. R. Bowen et al, entitled "Timer Mechanism for Rental Equipment", discloses a timer mounted on the rental equipment which runs only while the rented equipment is actually being used. A key is used to reset the timer, so that the equipment must be returned to the owner in order to get additional time. This arrangement is not practicable for large rental equipment.